Disappointed in the Music

Our Music was better last year than this. Lovely flavour, and keeps well.  But we got allium leaf miner this year    Not much growth, like yours, shokky.

We'll have to change the soil completely for next year and get some fresh bulbs.  I also put in something from the supermarket, just in case, and it was great! Small, but perfectly round bulbs and not so much leaf miner damage.

Mine weren't good either, I don't think they liked the drier weather.

I never thought of watering them but a few sites say you should water them well. This one does
http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/garlic-growing-guide

I have been watering mine regularly through all the dry weather. And as I say, my Thermidrome and Iberian Wight have produced some very big bulbs. But those varieties always do, that's why they're my favourites.

The other difference between the varieties was that only the Music put off scapes, every single bulb did it, whereas the other two varieties didn't put off any at all. I did take the scapes off, but maybe that took growing energy out of the bulbs.

Thermidrome and Iberian Wight are both soft neck so won't produce scapes    The other thing is that they are both lifted earlier than Music which is a late maturing variety.

Having saying that, have to confess that the varieties I grew this year are all on the "small" side (about 50:50 good and small) - Illico, Chesnok, Picardy, Tuscany and Music so I'm inclined to agree that the dry hot weather hastened things along faster than they should have especially as they had a slow start due to the long cold spring.  The Tuscany were particularly disappointing given the blurb but I had to lift them this weekend as rot was starting to set in.  I have finally concluded that late maturing varieties in general are not suited to my plot (Illico by far rates better by maturing early and avoiding some of the inevitable rot (not white rot) later in the season.

I have been looking at Iberian Wight (nice to see a good review) and thinking of getting some Early Purple Wight which used to do well on my plot for next year.

I picked mine yesterday from the raised beds in my sister's garden and they are marvellous.  The only problem is, I can't remember what variety they are.  I bought some last year to grow but before I could them all, they started to shoot so I planted them for this year.  They are even better than last years' ones and look perfect.  I'll have a rummage about in the shed and see if I can find a label.